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(40-13) Occurrence and fate of selected antibiotics in sewage treatment - introduction and analysis. Goebel, Anke*,1, McArdell, Christa1, Alder, Alfredo1, Giger, Walter1, 1 EAWAG-Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology, Ueberlandstrasse 133, P.O. Box 611, CH-8600, Duebendorf ABSTRACT- Antibiotics are an important group of pharmaceuticals – the human consumption in Switzerland exceeds 30 tons per year. In veterinary medicine approximately another 40 tons are used yearly in Switzerland. The most important groups of antibiotics in human medicine are beta-lactams (including penicillins and cephalosporins), sulfonamides, macrolides and fluoroquinolones. Whereas beta-lactams seem to be chemically instable, members of the other three groups have been detected in various aquatic compartments of the environment. Human used antibiotics, or pharmaceuticals in general, reach the aquatic environment mainly via excretion and therefore mostly after passing through a sewage treatment plant. Their fate and occurrence during the wastewater treatment is mostly unknown as well as the suitability of distinct treatment processes for their elimination. This aspect is thoroughly investigated in the EU project POSEIDON (www.eu-poseidon.com) which tries to assess and improve the removal efficiency of conventional and advanced wastewater technologies like membrane filtration for different pharmaceuticals including macrolides and sulfonamides. The poster gives an overview of this project. In addition, the analytical method used for the determination of several macrolides and sulfonamides is presented using solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Also first results from different aqueous matrices are shown. Key words: antibiotics, sewage treatment, analytical method, LC-MS/MS |
